Phoenix Rising
See truly; look carefully—darkness blankets the earth; people all over are cloaked in darkness. But God will rise and shine on you; the Eternal’s bright glory will shine on you, a light for all to see. Isaiah 60:2 The Voice (VOICE)
Amid dire circumstances and from out of the ashes, the Phoenix rises. Justice will always prevail, as long as the cries of the oppressed breathe passion abiding in an everlasting hope. Nothing can stop the rivers of righteousness from reaching into the desert to quench the thirst-filled desire for refreshment, restoration, and healing.
“Life is a hard battle anyway. If we laugh and sing a little as we fight the good fight of freedom, it makes it all go easier. I will not allow my life’s light to be determined by the darkness around me.” Sojourner Truth
Phoenix, the city and not the mythical bird, capital of Arizona, now descends into a place of unenlightenment. Dreams go sideways adjunct this focal point of a nation teetering on a decision. The Supreme Court has spoken and affirmed the suppressive voting moves of the Arizona legislature.
In 1831 Dread Scott faced the same reality as the supreme court of his day said that he, as a black man, must be subject to an alternative fact and not the constitution because these rights and laws are not meant for people like him. Like Scott, all melanated people must at times be ready to sing the lord’s song in a strange land. For the elusive rights of citizenship would slip through the grasp of children of the sun for another season.
From the beginning, the great American question is now and has always been about these rights. Etched out onto papyrus scrolls are the promises generations have fought to make more than mere words. Slaves who followed the drinking gourd in the night sky for a Promise Land of liberty embraced the day of freedom, even if only as a concept.
Written February 3, 1870, The Fifteenth Amendment plainly states.
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Eighty-Five years later, the voting rights act of 1965 had to come back and address promises in the 15th amendment. Now in 2021, the nation has taken a step back into the past. This past is only for a moment because there is no going back. We do not want to go back.
The late John Lewis said, “There are forces that want to take us back. We don’t want to go back, we want to go forward”
Dr. King, John Louis, and fellow marchers faced unbelievable odds by forging through the headwinds of adversity and racism; on March 7 in 1965, Bloody Sunday opened the hearts of all Americans, if only for a moment. The paralysis of analysis congealed long enough for Dr. Martin Luther King and others to compel the Johnson Administration and Congress to pass the 1965 voting rights act.
That same vigor is still alive, as was exhibited by all of the protests last summer. The chasm was so much more profound in 1965, yet those marchers prevailed. The deep discouragement of gloom has many looking into the bottomless pit of despair.
However, today we can witness the renewal of the Phoenix arising. This arising is bringing new life to a sleeping giant of a people and a movement. Those who would want to take us back to the Jim Crow of voter suppression do not realize that they have only poked the bear. Now is time to finish what John Lewis started. Together we rise as one.
Kevin Robinson Executive Director of Accord1
& Founder of Three-Fifths Magazine threefifths.online
accord1 